Major Airlines Increase Change Fees

Caroline Costello's travel accomplishments include surviving a 2 a.m. whitewater rafting excursion in the Canadian wilderness, successfully biking from Dusseldorf to Cologne without a map, and gaining access to a covert pizza speakeasy in New Orleans.

Caroline is an active member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW). Her work has appeared on USA Today, the Boston Globe, AOL.com, MSNBC.com, ABC News, TODAY Travel, and CruiseCritic.com, among other publications.

The legacy airlines have, once again, teamed up against passengers and raised fees in one consecutive sweep.

American joins United, US Airways, and Delta in raising its ticket change fee to $200 (up from $150) for domestic flights. US Airways was the first to initiate the fee hike, but within a few days all of the major U.S. legacy airlines had followed suit.

According to Travel Weekly, American did not increase change fees for international flights.

It’s easy (and outrageous) for the major airlines to gouge travelers when they go forward with fee increases collectively. But you still have some options. Southwest doesn’t charge for ticket changes, and JetBlue only charges $100. (I say “only” in the face of the legacy airlines charging twice as much.)